5.3.4 MySQL Installer Product Catalog and Dashboard

This section describes the MySQL Installer product catalog and the dashboard.

Product Catalog

The product catalog stores the complete list of released MySQL
products for Microsoft Windows that are available to download
from MySQL Downloads.
By default, and when an Internet connection is present, MySQL Installer
updates the catalog daily. You can also update the catalog
manually from the dashboard (described later).

An up-to-date catalog performs the following actions:

Populates the Available Products pane
of the Select Products and Features step. This step appears
when you select:

Identifies when product updates are available for the
installed products listed in the dashboard.

The catalog includes all development releases (Pre-Release),
general releases (Current GA), and minor releases (Other
Releases). Products in the catalog will vary somewhat, depending
on the MySQL Installer release that you download.

MySQL Installer Dashboard

The MySQL Installer dashboard is the default view that you see when you
start MySQL Installer after the
initial setup
finishes. If you closed MySQL Installer before the setup was finished, MySQL Installer
resumes the initial setup before it displays the dashboard.

Figure 5.5 MySQL Installer Dashboard Elements

Description of MySQL Installer Dashboard Elements

MySQL Installer dashboard operations provide a variety of actions that
apply to installed products or products listed in the
catalog. To initiate the following operations, first click
the operation link and then select the product or products
to manage:

Add: This operation opens the
Select Products and Features page. From there, you can
filter the product in the product catalog, select one or
more products to download (as needed), and begin the
installation. For hints about using the filter, see
Locating Products to Install.

Modify: Use this operation to add
or remove the features associated with installed
products. Features that you can modify vary in
complexity by product. When the Program
Shortcut check box is selected, the product
appears in the Start menu under the
MySQL group.

Upgrade: This operation loads the
Select Products to Upgrade page and populates it with
all the upgrade candidates. An installed product can
have more than one upgrade version and requires a
current product catalog.

Important server upgrade
conditions:

MySQL Installer does not permit server upgrades
between major release versions or minor release
versions, but does permit upgrades within a release
series, such as an upgrade from 5.7.18 to 5.7.19.

Upgrades between milestone releases (or from a
milestone release to a GA release) are not
supported. Significant development changes take
place in milestone releases and you may encounter
compatibility issues or problems starting the
server.

For upgrades to MySQL 8.0.16 server and higher, a
check box enables you to skip the upgrade check and
process for system tables, while checking and
processing data dictionary tables normally. MySQL Installer
does not prompt you with the check box when the
previous server upgrade was skipped or when the
server was configured as a sandbox InnoDB cluster.
This behavior represents a change in how MySQL
Server performs an upgrade (see
What the MySQL Upgrade Process Upgrades) and it
alters the sequence of steps that MySQL Installer applies to
the configuration process.

If you select Skip system tables upgrade
check and process. (Not recommended),
MySQL Installer starts the upgraded server with the
--upgrade=MINIMAL
server option, which upgrades the data dictionary
only. If you stop and then restart the server
without the
--upgrade=MINIMAL
option, the server upgrades the system tables
automatically, if needed.

The following information appears in the
Log tab and log file after the
upgrade configuration (with system tables skipped)
is complete:

WARNING: The system tables upgrade was skipped after upgrading MySQL Server. The
server will be started now with the --upgrade=MINIMAL option, but then each
time the server is started it will attempt to upgrade the system tables, unless
you modify the Windows service (command line) to add --upgrade=MINIMAL to bypass
the upgrade.
FOR THE BEST RESULTS: Run mysqld.exe --upgrade=FORCE on the command line to upgrade
the system tables manually.

To choose a new product version:

Click Upgrade. Confirm that the
check box next to product name in the
Upgradeable Products pane has a
check mark. Deselect the products that you do not
intend to upgrade at this time.

Note

For server milestone releases in the same release
series, MySQL Installer deselects the server
upgrade and displays a warning to indicate that
the upgrade is not supported, identifies the risks
of continuing, and provides a summary of the steps
to perform a logical upgrade manually. You can
reselect server upgrade at your own risk. For
instructions on how to perform a logical upgrade
with a milestone release, see
Logical Upgrade.

Click a product in the list to highlight it. This
action populates the Upgradeable
Versions pane with the details of each
available version for the selected product: version
number, published date, and a
Changes link to open the release
notes for that version.

MySQL Installer upgrades all of the selected products in one
action. Click Show Details to
view the actions performed by MySQL Installer.

Remove This operation opens the
Remove Products page and populates it with the MySQL
products installed on the host. Select the MySQL
products you want to remove (uninstall) and then click
Execute to begin the removal
process.

To select products to remove, do one of the following:

Select the check box for one or more products.

Select the Product check box to
select all products.

The Reconfigure link in the Quick
Action column next to each installed server loads the
current configuration values for the server and then cycles
through all configuration steps enabling you to change the
options and values. On completion, MySQL Installer stops the server,
applies the configuration changes, and restarts the server
for you. For a description of each configuration option, see
Section 5.3.3.1, “MySQL Server Configuration with MySQL Installer”.

Installed Samples and Examples associated
with a specific MySQL server version can be also be
reconfigured to apply feature-configuration changes, if any.
You must provide credentials with root privileges to
reconfigure these items.

The Catalog link enables you to
download the latest catalog of MySQL products manually and
then to integrate those product changes with MySQL Installer. The
catalog-download action does not perform an upgrade of the
products already installed on the host. Instead, it returns
to the dashboard and displays an arrow icon in the Version
column for each installed product that has a newer version.
Use the Upgrade operation to install
the newer product version.

You can also use the Catalog link to
display the current change history of each product without
downloading the new catalog. Select the Do not
update at this time check box to view the change
history only.

The MySQL Installer About icon () shows the current version of MySQL Installer and
general information about MySQL. The version number is
located above the Back button.

Tip

Always include this version number when reporting a
problem with MySQL Installer.

Click the double arrow () to show a list of links to the latest
MySQL product documentation, blogs, webinars, and more.

The MySQL Installer Options icon () includes the following tabs:

Product Catalog: Manages the daily
automatic catalog updates. By default, catalog updates
are scheduled at a fixed hour.
When new products or product versions are available,
MySQL Installer adds them to the catalog and then displays an arrow
icon () next to the version number of
installed products listed in the dashboard.

Use this option to enable or disable automatic catalog
updates and to reset the time of day when the MySQL Installer
updates the catalog automatically. For specific
settings, see the task named
ManifestUpdate in the Windows Task
Scheduler.

Connectivity Settings: Several
operations performed by MySQL Installer require internet access.
This option enables you to use a default value to
validate the connection or to use a different URL, one
selected from a list or added by you manually. With the
Manual option selected, new URLs
can be added and all URLs in the list can be moved or
deleted. When the Automatic option
is selected, MySQL Installer attempts to connect to each default
URL in the list (in order) until a connection is made.
If no connection can be made, it raises an error.

Locating Products to Install

MySQL products in the catalog are listed by category: MySQL
Servers, Applications, MySQL Connectors, and Documentation. Only
the latest GA versions appear in the Available
Products pane by default. If you are looking for a
pre-release or older version of a product, it may not be visible
in the default list.

To change the default product list, click
Add on the dashboard to open the Select
Products and Features page, and then click
Edit to open the filter dialog box (see
the figure that follows). Modify the product values and then
click Filter.

Figure 5.6 Filter Available Products

Reset one or more of the following values to filter the list of
available products:

Maturity: Current Bundle (appears initially with the full
package only), Pre-Release, Current GA, or Other Releases.

Note

The Commercial release of MySQL Installer does not display any MySQL
products when you select the Pre-Release age filter.
Products in development are available from the Community
release of MySQL Installer only.